JUL 15, painterly poetry: Mary Cassatt (American expat)

Check out our collection of illustrated verses about 'painterly poetry' by clicking HERE. 

 

JUL 14, brief saga (national verse): France

You can review our collection of verses about various individual nations, and about the groupings to which they belong, on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

JUL 13, postal places, USA: Duluth, MN

Authors' Note: MN is the official abbreviation for the American state of Minnesota, in which Duluth, a town with population 90,000 is situated. At the western end of lake Superior, the town was transiently, at the beginning of the 1900s, the busiest port in the United States.

The town's unusual name derives from the area's first known European explorer, the French soldier Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut. Duluth is now home to the annual "Magic Smelt Parade" and the University of Minnesota Duluth. Despite the region's French connection, the largest immigrant group in Minnesota has hailed from Scandinavia, accounting for the Swedish name of the verse's protagonist.

"Telephone-booth stuffing" was a short-lived global craze among college-age kids in the 1950s. Of interest, in the UK the activity was known as "telephone-booth squash", and the "rules" required that a phone-call be made from the overcrowded booth.

  At one swell foop, you can review all our postal poems about intriguing places in the USA and Canada, by proceeding to the encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE !

JUL 12, insects: deer- and horse- flies

 

a) reprise from 2021:

JUL 12, insects: deer-and horse- flies

You can review Giorgio's other verses about pesty and occasionally beneficial insects, as  collected in 'Buzzwords: Verses about Insects' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUL 11, palinku (poetic novelty): schoolboy humor (2 verses)

   In this post, we continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, this new form is used for a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its classic Japanese analogue, this concoction does not mandate the precise distribution of the syllables among the three lines, but does stipulate that each word in the poem be included in a palindromic phrase or sentence in English (i.e. one that can be read either forwards or backwards). 

  To help the reader discern the origin of the lyrics, each palindrome (generally occupying one of the three lines of the poem) has been color-coded. 

 

(Ed. note:) Verses of this type have continued to accumulate, and there are now more than 50 of them. You can easily view them all  if you  proceed  to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

Or, if your prefer, you can view all this material on Facebook  in Giorgio's photo-albums.

JUL 10, W-I-P

 

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUL 9, planet-saving verse: coy koi

Authors' Note: The Amur carp, Cyprinus rubrofuscus, is a long-lived freshwater fish native to extensive areas of Eastern Asia. Centered in the Niigata prefecture of Japan, breeders have taken advantage since 1820 of genetic variability in the color of fish-scales to produce variants in a variety of remarkable decorative colors that may be further enhanced by selection and cross-breeding. Nishikigoi ('brocaded carp'), less formally referred to as koi ('carp'), have been recently pursued further as a hobby and as a commercial interest in various Asian countries.

On every continent, koi populations have 'escaped' and become established as invasive intruders in freshwater ponds and streams (where their color eventually reverts to that of undomesticated Amur carp). As koi characteristically alter the environment, increasing the turbidity of freshwater bodies, native species have been displaced.

Koi contained in an indoor environment 
Allan Gardens, Toronto

You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

JUL 8, waterfowl: roseate spoonbills

Readers who are not familiar with the term 'pluff mud' should check out another of our illustrated verses HERE.

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection of topic-based blogposts 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

JUL 7, birdlore: mute swans pose for the camera

 Photos from a birding excursion to one of Toronto's waterfront parks. 

To view more satisfactory photos of mute swans by Giorgio, check the blog-posts for these dates: 

April 25, 2023

March 23, 2023

May 14, 2022

April 25, 2022

March 27, 2021

February 21, 2021

JUL 6, wordplay map: new world palindromes (#27,#28)

 a) reprise from 2020

JUL 6, wordplay maps: new world palindromes(#27,#28)

You can view the entire collection of these 50 wordplay maps, by accessing the collection 'Tourists Palindromic Guides: The Americas'. Start by clicking HERE! 

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUL 5, W-I-P

 

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUL 4, brief saga (national verse): America

Authors' Note: les États-Unis (lay zay-TAH-zoo-nee, or as here, lay ZAY-tah-zoo-nee): French for '(the) United States'

compris (com-PREE): French for 'understood' or 'included'

os Estados Unidos, the name in Portuguese, here using the rhyming properties of the Brazilian dialect [OHS, etc.]

huddled masses: a phrase from Emma Lazarus's 1903 "The New Colossus", a sonnet that is engraved at the base of New York's Statue of Liberty.

The United States of America, or USA (capital — Washington, D.C.), initally formed in 1781 by merger of the thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coastline of British North America, has a Constitution dating from 1787, but no declared official language; English (American) is the de facto language of use. Millions of native speakers of French, Spanish and Portuguese (not to mention Canadian and other variants of English) make their homes elsewhere in the Americas; also, due to intermittently open immigration policies, significant linguistic minorities of foreign language speakers are now scattered through, and contribute to the cultural landscape of the United States, or US. Italian, a major linguistic influence, has exerted its role there primarily through immigration from Europe, as no Italian colonies have ever been established in the Americas.

The authors acknowledge substantial inspiration by OEDILFian prodigy speedysnail's "country" verses.

Readers of this blogpost might note that the verse and notes in total give thirteen different names for today's country of interest, matching the original number of colonies that banded together. (Apologies are made to aboriginal groups, who could not be included in the discussion owing to lack of space.)

You can review our collection of verses about various individual nations, and about the groupings to which they belong, on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

JUL 3, Latin States of America (USA): mottos #2

You are picking up from the initiation of this fun adventure on yesterday's post. Click HERE to quickly return to the first episode!

English equivalents:
AL: We dare maintain our rights
AR: The people rule
MS: By valor and arms
NC: To be, rather than to seem
OK: Hard work conquers all things. 
SC: While I breathe, I hope.

English equivalents:
AZ: God enriches
CO: Nothing without Providence
ID: Let it be perpetual
NM: It grows as it goes
OR: She flies with her own wings

This adventure continues HERE !

JUL 2, Latin States of America (USA): mottos #1

BACKGROUND:
With the aid of Wikipedia, it was discovered that 24/50 states of the USA as well as the District of Columbia have Latin mottos. Other non-English languages used in state mottos include 1 each for Greek, French, Spanish, Hawaiian and Chinook. There are 22 states whose mottos are proclaimed only in English (a few states, e.g. Minnesota, have more than one official motto!).
These findings suggest that as the sole issue in a presidential election, the English-motto-only states would lose the Electoral college tally as well as the popular vote.  

English equivalents:
CT: Who transplanted sustains
DC: Justice to all
MA: By the sword we seek peace, but only under liberty
MD: Manly deeds, womanly words
ME: I direct 
NY: Ever upward!
VA: Thus always to tyrants
VT: May the 14th star shine bright.

English equivalents:
KS: To the stars through adversity
KY: Let us give thanks to God
MI: Manly deeds, womanly words
MN: I long to see what is beyond 
MO: The welfare of the people is the highest law
WV: Mountaineers, always free.

This adventure continues into other parts of the country. Click HERE!

JUL 1, bi-lyrical limerick: Syrian refugees (Canada)

a) reprise from 2020

JUL 8, bi-lyrical limerick: 'Syrian refugees (Canada)'

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'bi-lyrical limericks' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE ! 

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUN 30, brief saga (national verse): Canada

Authors' Note:

les États-Unis (lay zay-TAH-zoo-ee, or as here, lay ZAY-tah-zoo-nee ): French for '(the) United States'

Au Canada: (O Ca-na-DUH), a tiny spoof on the title of our national anthem ("O Canada") in both official languages; the heavy emphasis on the final syllable in the English version seems artificial to those of us more accustomed to pronouncing our homeland as CA-nuh-duh.

pays (peh-EE), province (pro-VEHnS), compris (cohn-PREE), Québécois (kay-bay-CWA), chez nous (shay NOO) and au (OH): the French words for 'country', 'province', 'understood/included', 'Quebecker(s)', at home' and 'in/at (the)', respectively

(from) sea to sea: Canada's official motto is the Latin phrase A Mari usque ad Mare

This verse was inspired by speedysnail's "country" verses, including The Gambia. 

You can review our collection of verses about various individual nations, and about the groupings to which they belong, on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

JUN 29, excursion: animal displays and animation

Despite the chain-link fences at the viewing interface, the animals at Toronto's old High Park "animal display area" seem to have been given lots of room to move about, and nice shelters. A visit is worthwhile for those aged 2 to 92. 
 

emu

capybara

TO SEE MORE STUFF: To see older or newer material  (posted daily, or at least on most 'good' days), CLICK below the Comments Section, on 'Older Post' or 'Newer Post'.

JUN 28, W-I-P

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUN 27, (re)duplication: hodge-podge

 

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses in which we have dealt with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. 

JUN 26, W-I-P

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

JUN 25, excursion: High Park's peacocks strut their stuff

 

TO SEE MORE STUFF: To see older or newer material  (posted daily, or at least on most 'good' days), CLICK below the Comments Section, on 'Older Post' or 'Newer Post'.

JUN 24, terminal (poetic) exclamation: EGAD!

 Authors' Note: The author apologizes that the above verse conjures a nightmare of sado-masochistic behavior. It must be admitted, however, that the sensitive dominatrix and the vengeful masochist do not fit the stereotypes (see the relevant poem "Dominatrix" by SheilaB at OEDILF.com.)

Egad, no bondage! and Egad, a bad age! are found in lists of classic palindromic phrases.

"The Whip", bronze sculpture, George Holschuh,
Brookgreen Gardens, SC. 

You can review our collection of poems on the topic of "Terminal Exclamation (Limerick Variations)" as presented on our encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE.  

You can also review several linked collection of verses dealing with classic palindromes by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes'.